The present invention relates to a hand-held vacuum cleaner of the type which comprises a housing for accommodating an electric motor operable to drive a fan, which fan, when driven, causes an influx of air to the vacuum cleaner through a first opening in the housing, via a filter means, to a second opening in the housing for efflux from the housing; wherein the housing includes first and second pivotally connected portions which may be pivotally separated in order to remove debris from the filter means.
A vacuum cleaner of the above kind is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,654. This document shows a cleaner having a removable debris (or dust) bag which sits in a housing of the cleaner. During use of the cleaner, debris collects in this filter bag and makes operation of the cleaner less and less efficient as more and more debris collects therein. This is because filtering of the influx air is caused by passing this dirt-laden air through the filter which is formed from a woven fibrous material. As the dirt-laden air is forced through the filter, debris is caught by the fibres and so clean air is passed out of the cleaner via the housing on the other side of the filter to where the debris is caught. It is clearly desirable, therefore to allow the user of the cleaner to have easy access to the filter bag in order to be able to remove it from its seat and periodically clear it of debris.
In the above document, removal of the filter bag is achieved by firstly lifting a portion of the housing of the vacuum cleaner away form the rest of the housing to expose a dust case. The dust case is seated in a recess formed in inside of the housing and itself comprises a pivotal lid below which is the filter. The filter comprises a sheet of cloth-like material held in a semi-rigid framework. The pivotal lid of the dust case is then lifted up to expose the filter which can then be removed and turned upside down to allow the debris therewithin to fall out.
Whilst the above operation functions efficaciously, there are at least four separate movements necessary to empty the filter of debris. Also, both the portion of the housing and the lid of the dust case which need to be moved before the filter may be emptied, are lifted upwards and then stand vertically proud of the vacuum cleaner. The user of the vacuum cleaner thus has to hold the entire unit upright and steady in order to be able to perform the above tasks to empty the debris from the filter. Clearly this does not make for a particularly easily achieved and easily operable filter cleaning process.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce or substantially obviate the abovementioned disadvantages.